Take me to your leader, America. Wait. I AM the leader! —Image generated by AI. The story is 100% human.
A lot has been reported about how incompetent Trump is, pretty much since he began his 2nd term in office. But as the clock wound down to mark his first 100 days, it seemed like nearly every news outlet from the Wall Street Journal to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC was overloading our mental circuits with boundless examples of how and why Trump wasn’t up to the task. Lawrence O’Donnell, oftentimes one of my favorite commentators on MSNBC or anywhere, seems to relish in calling Trump “the stupidest president in history” every single chance he gets.
And he’s probably right. But Trump is the “stupidest president in history,” who still has 3.5 years left in office.
So what does this mean? Because Trump isn’t just stupid, he’s also cruel and incapable of ever admitting he made a mistake. And despite all of his foiled attempts to destroy democracy in America, he has also met with a fair amount of success and caused a significant amount of harm, some of which may be irreversible. And there’s still so much time left on the clock with so many more things left to break.
I admit it’s tempting to try to take comfort in Trump’s obvious incompetence as reason to believe that any day now his imaginary kingdom will come crashing to the ground and we will get our democracy back. Because just look at all those huge crowds of protesters all around the country! Isn’t that a good sign?
Of course it is. But as important as mass protests are – and they are extremely important right now as we head into the summer – protesters still can’t govern from the streets. To be sure they have managed to create immense pressure to reverse course on certain unpopular actions taken by Trump and crew, and the fear of voter protests has the potential to pressure just enough weak-kneed members of the Republican Party to re-think other unpopular courses of action when they see the potential for blowback in their own backyard.
Or not.
Trump’s mind-boggling incompetence – and the companion incompetence of his administration -will either save us or kill us. Either Team Trump’s inability to effectively carry out a sustainable version of The Plan will somehow manage to save us from wholesale destruction because the gang that couldn’t shoot straight couldn’t figure out how to properly destroy America, or they do figure it out eventually, and we get shoved over the cliff. But even if Team Trump keeps bungling things up, how much longer can America last with this level of incompetence at the controls? Because in the end the effect is the same; whether they get it right or keep screwing it up, America withers away.
Who honestly believes we can keep this up until the next presidential election? More importantly, who believes Trump plans to allow another presidential election unless his victory is guaranteed?
Which brings me back to the question of what does this all mean for us as Americans right now? It means we need to wrap our minds around the fact that court victories all by themselves aren’t enough to save us from a rogue dictator. The law isn’t enough to rein in a dictator who thinks the law doesn’t apply to him. So if Trump is still toggling with the switchboard by 2028, then we have already lost.
On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began, and it raged on for four bloody years until April of 1865. Because, unfortunately, very unfortunately, war was the only way to resolve the issue and save the country. Today, we are swiftly approaching a very similar point of uncomfortable decision where we will be forced to decide just how far we are willing to go to save ourselves. And to do that, we will have to come to grips with the actual size of the threat, not the size we want it to be. In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people have never had any illusions about the size of the threat they are facing, which is why, for them, fighting to the death is preferable to giving in. They know what happens on the day they fold and bend the knee.
Do we?
All “We Are Speaking” posts are now free for everyone to read, and commenting on our posts is now open to everyone!
What you have said is so very true and I read somewhere that said we are really stuck for the “ term”
For me I am hoping for some self destruction before the midterms and then having better minds controlling the rest of said “ term”
Everyone has grabbed this opportunity to tell us in soma words what wrong but… but have not made clear how to go about how to fix what we can …
So for me I will be brave and start with the latest mess “ the big ugly or beautiful bill”
In senate: so far
Democrats 45
Republicans 53
Independence’s 2 ( votes democrats)
Ron Johnson (R)just said No
So we are at
Democrats 48
Republican 52
Any ideas are welcome 🙏